Death of US Dollar? China Launches Petro-Yuan to Challenge Greenback’s Dominance

Death of US Dollar? China Launches Petro-Yuan to Challenge Greenback’s Dominance

The highly anticipated yuan-backed crude oil futures have been launched in Shanghai. China is the world’s biggest oil consumer, with eyes on rival benchmarks Brent and WTI as well as the US currency. Trading of the new oil futures contracts for September settlement started on the Shanghai International Energy Exchange at 440.20 yuan ($69.70) per…

The Dawn of Psychographic Outcome-based Warfare

The Dawn of Psychographic Outcome-based Warfare

Somewhere deep in the bowels of the Israeli intelligence-surveillance-military complex – perhaps, in a dozen or more highly-secured computer systems laboratories in Tel Aviv, Herzliya, Ramat Gan, and Petach Tikva – the idea was first stumbled upon. Borrowing from the psychographic tools developed by online marketing firms and coupling them with age-old propaganda methods and…

Cambridge Analytica & The Facebook-Big Data Conspiracy

Cambridge Analytica & The Facebook-Big Data Conspiracy

The Guardian published an exposé about how Cambridge Analytica allegedly mastered the use of social media data to give the Brexit and Trump campaigns a crucial edge in 2016. The UK news outlet released an extensive story about Christopher Wylie, the Canadian genius behind the Cambridge Analytica data firm that was reportedly the secret weapon…

Regional Cooperation on Afghanistan Remains a Chimera

Regional Cooperation on Afghanistan Remains a Chimera

The international conference on Afghanistan, scheduled to take place in Tashkent on Monday, seems doomed to become yet another inconsequential event. Washington is the prime mover behind the conference, which will be co-chaired by the presidents of Uzbekistan and Afghanistan. But, ironically, the US has undermined its own initiative at the last minute. The Tashkent…